The Stolen Bones (5 page)

I glanced back at the spot where Steffi, Abby, and Grayson were working on the fossil. “But that one
is
rare?”

“Yes.” Kyle stared at them, his jaw set. “That’s why we’re going to keep it safe, no matter what.”

Bess put a hand on Kyle’s arm. “If you have thieves around here, we’ll find them!”

“Kyle, how about giving us that tour,” I said. “How big is the site?”

He gestured around the hollow, which was perhaps twenty feet by forty feet. “Basically what you see here.” He stepped over to the cliff wall, and we gathered around him. We could see bands in the rock, like layers in a cake. The bands had different colors, from pale tan to dark brown to reddish. In some bands the rock looked hard; in others, crumbly.

Kyle said, “Most dinosaur fossils are found in sedimentary rocks, like this. Sedimentary rocks are made up of sediments such as sand, gravel, mud, or clay. They’re usually deposited in bodies of water.”

Bess looked around. “So what are they doing here in the desert?”

Kyle grinned at her. “It wasn’t always a desert.” He gestured across the hollow. “This used to be a river, millions
of years ago. Ancient rivers are a good place to find fossils, because the mud covers bones quickly. If something dies out in the desert, its bones might be scattered, or just decay. The river mud protects the bones, so they’re still here for us to find. Plus, this hollow is still a river during flood season. That helps us because the water washes away the soil and exposes new things.”

We walked in a circle around the site. I scanned the ground for footprints or dropped objects, but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. With so many people wandering around the site, I probably couldn’t have identified the thief’s footprints anyway.

While Kyle was explaining some paleontology facts to Bess, George whispered to me, “What do you think? Jimmy?”

I frowned. “He’s the most suspicious person we’ve met so far. But what about those missing fossils last night? If Jimmy and Erlinda had learned how valuable fossils are only when we told them, they wouldn’t have had time to steal those.”

“But they might have already known. Erlinda could have been putting on an act. Or Jimmy might have known, even if she didn’t.”

I nodded. “They’re definitely suspects, but I don’t want to jump to conclusions. I don’t see any cowboy boot tracks here, like the ones last night. Everyone on the dig is wearing hiking boots.”

Kyle turned to us. “Any more questions? I really should get to work. Our priority now is to get that fossil out.”

“How long will that take?” I asked.

“Unfortunately, it won’t be ready today. After we expose the top, we plaster over one side of the fossil, and let the plaster dry. Then we chisel out under the base and flip over the whole thing. We plaster the top side, and once that dries, it’s ready to make the trip back to the museum, safe in its armor. It’s called jacketing. We’ll start plastering soon, but with the drying time it won’t be ready until tomorrow. So, do you want to start with excavating or with jacketing?”

“Excavating,” George said promptly. “That sounds more exciting.”

“I guess I’ll try jacketing,” Bess said.

I pondered. It was tempting to head back to camp and poke around. But what would I look for? A smart thief would simply drop the stolen fossils under a bush until he was ready to leave, and I couldn’t search the whole desert. A thief wouldn’t need any special tools, either, because they were all at the site. Maybe the best thing I could do was work, ask questions, and keep an eye on everything. “Just put me wherever you need me.”

“Good,” Kyle said. “Bess, you can work with Steffi. They should be about ready to cover that fossil,
and you couldn’t learn from a better plasterer.”

“Sounds good.” She walked over to Steffi and Grayson.

“What happened to Abby?” I asked.

Kyle glanced around. “I guess she’s gone on another one of her spiritual walkabouts or whatever she calls them. The woman is useless.” He grinned at me. “Sorry. I shouldn’t be so blunt.”

I smiled back. “That’s all right. With volunteers you have to take what you get.”

“Too true. But Abby actually knows her fossils. She just doesn’t want to do any work. So why on earth did she bother to come?” He sighed. “In any case, why don’t you two work with Tom and Russell. Since you’re the newcomers, you can split up and pair off with them.”

I wound up with Tom, while George worked with Russell about ten feet away. Tom said, “This was an aetosaur we call
Typothorax
. Aetosaurs were weird plant-eating reptiles. The bones are jumbled together, so it probably died at the edge of the river, and the water carried some bones away and dumped others here. You want to get as close to the bone as possible, but you don’t want to damage the fossil.”

I ran my hand over a section. “How do you tell? The whole thing feels like solid stone.”

“Well, that’s basically what a fossil is. Minerals seep
into the bones and turn them to stone. But it’s different from the surrounding area, so the rock will tend to come away.”

I picked up a hammer and chisel. “So pound away until I find bone?”

“Right. We’re not trying to get the bones out individually, of course. We just want to get as much rock as possible off of the top before we jacket it.”

“Why? Wouldn’t it be safer to just plaster the whole thing?”

“Safer, maybe, but not easier,” Tom said. “Most of these jackets weigh between fifty and two hundred pounds, and big ones will weigh more. Extra rock means extra weight.”

I gaped at him. “But we’re a mile from the cars!”

“Yup. It’s the fun part.” He grinned at me. “We put the heaviest jackets on a big rescue sled and drag it. But believe me, that’s no walk in the park, especially with uneven ground. And smaller fossils just go into our backpacks. Excavating is the easy part.”

“I guess I’d better get busy, then.” I picked up a chisel and started tapping at the rock. At first I tried to be delicate, but nothing happened. I had to tap hard to break up the rock at all.

Tom worked quickly and confidently, brushing away loose rock chips with a wide paintbrush. I thought about what he’d said. Stealing fossils wasn’t
like stealing jewelry. You had to know what you were doing to identify and retrieve valuable fossils. That meant the thief was an expert in the field.

Could the thief even be a paleontologist? Paleontology was a lot of work, and probably didn’t pay well. “What’s it like being a paleontologist?” I asked Tom.

“It’s the best job in the world,” he said. “At least, if you can get a job.”

“Is it hard to find a job as a paleontologist?”

He sat back and wiped his face with a bandanna. “There aren’t a lot of jobs. Take the museum here. Most of the staff is young, and far from retirement. And if a position does open up, you can bet that Kyle will make sure Steffi gets it.”

His gaze settled on Steffi. She was dipping strips of burlap into the thick white plaster and laying them over the corner of the damaged rock. I couldn’t read Tom’s expression.

He went on. “But one major find can make you famous. Then you’re in
National Geographic
, lecturing at museums around the world, in demand everywhere.”

I studied him. He wasn’t bad-looking, but his mouth turned down at the edges, and he was already getting frown lines between his eyebrows. “Is that what you want? Fame?”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

“So how do you get there?”

He sighed. “My best hope is to find something that will make for a great graduate project and get me some attention. That can lead to future funding.”

He lapsed into silence, and I studied him surreptitiously as we worked. Could
Tom
have a motive? Maybe he wanted to steal the fossil so he could claim he found it somewhere else and get the recognition he seems to want so badly. Could I be working side by side with a thief?

I
had a hard time concentrating on the fossil, with all the questions in my head. Plus, it kept getting hotter. But I didn’t want to damage the bone by being careless. I was trying to help Kyle, not cause more problems.

Conversation died off across the site. All I could hear was the clink of tools, the buzzing of insects, and the shuffling sounds of people changing their positions. The sun beat down on us, and I wiped my face on my sleeve.

“All right, gang,” Kyle called out. “Lunchtime!”

Cheers erupted in the hollow. We got to our feet and stretched. George looked at her watch and said, “Ninety-two degrees.”

I joined Bess, who was wiping wet plaster off her hands. “Do you feel up to using your natural charm?” I whispered.

She grinned. “Always.”

“Walk with Tom,” I said. “It sounds like he’s jealous of Steffi, and Kyle is on Steffi’s side. I’d like to know if there’s anything there, but he might get suspicious if I keep asking questions.”

She saluted. “Agent Bess is on the case.”

I dropped back behind the group as we walked, pondering other suspects. What about Jimmy and his mother? Had our meeting last night given them the idea of stealing fossils? Or had they already been at work?

Steffi was a mystery all by herself. She was smart and strong and tough. My instinct was to like her. But what about the confusion last night? Why had she pitched her tent so far from everyone else? And why would she be having secret conversations with Jimmy, if that was the case? She must have been surprised when he appeared last night, or she wouldn’t have screamed. But then she acted like nothing had happened.

I didn’t know much about the other people in the group. I’d have to fix that. And of course, it might not be anyone in the group at all. But with fossils missing
from the Land Rover as well as the dig site, a passing stranger seemed unlikely. Only someone close by would know where to find everything.

I shook my head, trying to clear it.

When I looked around, I realized I had no idea where I was.

George said, “Um, Nancy, I think we’re supposed to go this way.”

“Huh? Oh, right.” It’s a good thing I have my friends to keep me on track while I’m distracted by a mystery. Otherwise I might wind up lost in the desert!

Back at camp Felix greeted us with a smile and a cooler filled with cold drinks. The icy lemon-lime soda coursed down my throat and knocked all other thoughts from my head.

I drank about half the can, then looked at Bess and smiled. “Some morning, huh?”

She nodded and took another sip of her soda. Even in the shade of her sun hat, her cheeks looked pink. Damp tendrils of hair curled around her ears. “It was fun.”

George bounded over to us, full of energy as usual. “Learn anything?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

I shook my head. “Lots of questions, but no answers.”

Bess leaned closer and lowered her voice. “I think you’re right about Tom, Kyle, and Steffi. I don’t think it’s a love triangle. More like professional jealousy. That guy sure knows how to complain.”

“I’ll tackle him again this afternoon,” I said. “But first let’s get some lunch!”

Felix had sandwiches ready to go, piled high with meat, cheese, and vegetables. “Are you sure you don’t want one?” he asked Abby. “I have a vegetarian.” It looked delicious, with roasted red peppers and sprouts spilling out the sides.

She wrinkled her nose. “Thank you, but I’ll stick with my herbed soybeans and millet.”

Grayson picked up a sandwich stuffed with roast beef. “Ah, here’s one just the way I like it—plenty of cow!

Abby stuck her tongue out at him, and he laughed.

We got our sandwiches and looked around for shade. Tom and Russell sat under a blue tarp stretched between two trucks, talking seriously. I caught a few words, and it sounded like a foreign language. Dinosaur names, I guessed. Abby perched nearby, eating delicately like a cat. Grayson slumped against a tree, looking wilted. Steffi headed toward her tent. Felix sat by his sandwiches, ready to offer more.

Kyle looked tired, with his shoulders drooping, but he smiled and came over to us. “We usually take a couple of hours’ break now. We try to head back to the dig around three o’clock. That way we avoid the worst of the heat, but still get in several more hours of work.”

“Why do you do the dig when it’s so hot, anyway?” George asked. “Why not wait until cooler weather?”

“A lot of our volunteers are students or teachers, so we wait for summer break.”

We lapsed into silence as we finished our sandwiches. The air shimmered with heat. I felt like I was melting, and my eyes wanted to close. Soon people headed to their tents. I hesitated, feeling like I should be doing some detective work. But for the moment everyone was safely tucked away. I decided to lie down for a few minutes and then come out to keep an eye on things.

Bess and George followed me back to the tent. I crouched and unzipped the flap. Under the noise of the zipper I heard a strange sound. I paused a moment, trying to identify it. A dry rattle, like seeds in a gourd. Where was it coming from?

I shrugged and finished unzipping the tent. As the flap fell open, the sound got louder.

Zhhh-zhh-zhhh!

It was coming from inside the tent!

I looked in. I saw a raised head, coiled body, and shaking tail.

I was staring at a rattlesnake.

M
y breath stopped while my heart raced. I
couldn’t move, even though I felt the adrenaline surging through my bent legs.

Behind me Bess stepped closer. “What’s that noise?”

“Get back!” I croaked. I sensed rather than saw George grab
Bess and the two of them carefully retreat.

The rattler had to be at least three feet long, and two inches thick. It
lay smack on the middle sleeping bag, coiled up, with its head and tail raised. I stared
into its unblinking eyes. Its tongue flicked in and out. Every few seconds it paused in
its rattling, then started up again, the tail tip a blur.

Chills ran up and down my spine and sweat poured
down
my face. I took a shallow breath and reached one hand behind me. Slowly I shifted back
until I was sitting on the ground. I inched my way back, making no sudden movements,
though my pounding heart was telling me to leap up and run.